


Forbidden Fruit

by eskimita



Category: Pirates of the Caribbean (Movies)
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-06-24
Updated: 2013-06-24
Packaged: 2017-12-15 23:34:15
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,473
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/855251
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/eskimita/pseuds/eskimita
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>When he first met Hector, Jack Sparrow was a naive lad, desperate to prove himself to his father. All these years later, nothing's really changed.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Forbidden Fruit

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Heavenlea6292](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Heavenlea6292/gifts).



Jack Sparrow was 18 years old when he met Hector Barbossa. No longer a boy, yet also not quite a man. He had barged into a meeting of the Pirate Lords in hopes of drawing the attention of Don Rafael’s granddaughter Esmeralda. Everything was going quite swimmingly until the subject of the rogue pirates was breached. That’s when Jack’s young life changed forever. Don Rafael had brought more than his granddaughter to Shipwreck Cove. He’d also brought a survivor of the rogue pirate attacks. Such was the circumstance when Jack first met Hector Barbossa.

From the first time he laid eyes on Hector Barbossa, Jack was intrigued. He must have been to have his attention drawn away from the Lady Esmeralda so quickly. 

It wasn’t that Hector was handsome because his scar-ridden, weather-beaten face was far from conventional beauty. The scraggly beard begged to be combed and the man had an odd gleam in his eye.

Nevertheless, Jack was captivated.

He listened as Barbossa spun his tale of rogue pirates, getting lost in the salty lilt of the words. Even with the clearly defined “sailor speak,” Barbossa showed quite a few signs of intelligence. He also struggled with the idea of telling nothing but the truth, Jack noticed. A sign of a grizzled pirate if Jack had ever seen one. But when Barbossa spoke of his loss, Jack saw more emotion in him than he’d ever seen in any other pirate.

As Barbossa regaled them with the loss of his ship, Jack felt like he was there. He could feel the splintered boards of the deck beneath his feet, taste the gunpowder as cannonballs flew through the air, and smell the stench of dying crewmembers. Barbossa had weaved Jack into his spell. The young man felt the old captain’s despair as he surveyed his dead or dying crew. It was enough to bring light tears to Jack’s eyes.

Of course he hid his tears. Instead of allowing them to fall, he took a large gulp of his wine, almost choking on it. As quietly as possible, he cleared his throat, eyes never leaving Barbossa’s ragged figure.

As Barbossa’s account came to an end, Jack noticed how drained the older man looked. The emotional stress of the story seemed to have aged the man ten years. Yet despite the added age, Jack still found himself unable to tear his eyes away from Barbossa. He told himself that there was a raven-haired beauty next to him, but he’d lost all interest in Doña Esmeralda.

When Jack spoke up, suggesting that the ship which had attacked Barbossa’s _Cobra_ was not the only rogue pirate ship out there, Barbossa’s eyes fell on him at last. He could feel the older man sizing him up and sat up straighter. The smile that Barbossa shared with Jack stirred his senses in a way the boy didn’t quite understand.

Despite his offer to escort the Lady Esmeralda back to her grandfather’s ship, Jack knew he’d be seeking out Captain Barbossa later that night. All romantic intentions towards the young woman were forgotten in his musings over Barbossa. He dropped her at the _Venganza_ with a polite bow and went in search of the salty captain.

Jack found Barbossa in the Drunken Lady, staring into a tumbler of rum. Jack grabbed one for himself and sat down at the captain’s table.

“Shame, wot ‘appened to your _Cobra_. I don’t know that I could ever survive somet’in’ as ‘eartbreakin’ as that.”

Barbossa looked up and grunted before taking a long draught of rum. “Wot be it ye want, boyo?”

“Me? Just company. An’ seein’ as you were sittin’ ‘ere alone, I figured you’d be as good a company as any man.”

Barbossa eyed the younger man and nodded. For a few minutes they sat there in pleasurable silence, neither feeling the need to say anything to the other. Jack kept looking over at the older man and then back down at his hands, playing with the cuffs on his coat. For a reason he didn’t quite comprehend, he was nervous when he was alone with Barbossa. He hadn’t been nervous when they’d been in the meeting. But here, in a crowded pub, he found himself more nervous than the first time he’d sought out a willing doxy to copulate with.

Barbossa found himself watching the spectacle Jack was making of himself, intrigued by the young man’s inability to make a cohesive sentence. He’d noticed the boy while he was telling his tale, noticed how Jack’s eyes shined with the excitement and terror he felt at hearing of the destruction of Barbossa’s ship. In this lad, Barbossa knew he could find a companion, even if the lad didn’t know what sort of companion it was he was after.

They continued drinking late into the night, neither actually drinking enough to get drunk. After they had had their fill of rum, they found themselves wandering through the ladders and pathways of Shipwreck City. Finally they came to the inn where Barbossa was staying.

“Boyo, why don’t ye come on in? No use sleepin’ in a ‘ammock among yer captain’s sailors when I ‘ave a perfectly good room ‘ere.”

Jack was surprised by the invitation, but found that he was not adverse to the idea of spending the night with Barbossa. Quite the opposite was true, he found. He was excited by the unknown possibilities the man held. He nodded his acceptance and followed Barbossa into the inn, not saying anything until they were alone in Barbossa’s room.

“Tell me, lad, ‘ow old be you?”

“I’m 18, Captain.”

Barbossa nodded thoughtfully and moved to the bed, sitting down and removing his boots. “An’ bein’ a boy o’ 18, I imagine ye’ve already tasted the flesh o’ the doxies around Shipwreck City.”

Jack nodded, unashamed of his affiliation with certain prostitutes in town. Now, he had no idea where this conversation was headed, or of Barbossa’s purpose in asking him these questions.

“Wot do the doxies o’ Shipwreck City ‘ave to do wit’ anythin’? Are you in need o’ a recommendation?”

Barbossa cackled a laugh that sent shivers down Jack’s spine.

“Nay, lad, I ‘ave no use o’ female companionship tonight. I merely wondered wot yer experience wit’ the doxies ‘ad been. Tell me lad, ‘ave ye ‘ad any experience other than that wit’ the doxies?”

Jack looked confused, but shook his head. Other than the prostitutes, he’d never really indulged in the needs of the flesh. Unsure of what to do, he sat down in the lone chair in the room.

Barbossa smiled. He had found just what he was looking for, without even trying to. He stood up and walked to the chair, looking down at Jack.

“An’ ‘ave you any interest in expanding yer knowledge, boy?”

Jack was uncomfortable for a moment, but he pushed the feeling away. No one would ever be able to say that Jack Sparrow didn’t rise to a challenge. So, rather than nod his silent agreement, he stood, his face just a breath away from Barbossa’s.

“Wot ‘ave you in mind, ‘Ector?”

Barbossa smiled and grabbed the younger man’s head, moving his lips over Jack’s. At first, Jack was startled, but quickly he lost all sense of propriety and wrapped his own hands in Barbossa’s scraggly hair, deepening the kiss.

Barbossa pushed Jack up against the table, knocking the younger man’s tricorn to the floor. He worked the buttons of Jack’s coat, throwing it behind him. Jack, just as caught up in the moment, dragged Barbossa’s coat off of him as well, struggling with the buttons in his eagerness to bare Barbossa’s arms. Neither one had the patience for shirt buttons, tearing the shirts off of each other and letting them hang by the waistcoats. It barely registered with Jack that this was his only good shirt.

Somehow they ended up stark naked, although neither one could say how. Their clothes were thrown all over the room in disarray. Jack had long since stopped thinking and was merely caught up in the moment, caught up in the feelings that Barbossa stirred in him.

Hours later, Jack moved slowly from his spot on Barbossa’s bed. Barbossa was still asleep, one arm thrown over the spot that Jack had occupied. Jack tiptoed through the room, gathering his clothes up and putting them on. He took one look back at Barbossa before opening the door and slipping through.

Jack and Barbossa still saw each other around Shipwreck City, but they never acknowledged the night that they had shared. It wasn’t something either of them felt the need to talk about. They had relations. It was as simple as that. Neither of them was beholden to the other. Occasionally, they would meet for a tankard of rum with Jack’s friend Christophe and the three men would swap stories.

But Christophe never suspected that Jack and Hector still met in the dark hours of the night at least once a week. The location changed from day to day. Sometimes they would merely have a quickie in an alley; sometimes they would take a rowboat to Jack’s swimming spot and spend the afternoon lingering in the sunlight. Jack loved the way the sunlight played on the scars all over Barbossa’s chest. He could spend all afternoon just tracing those scars. But Barbossa was rarely patient enough for that. Soon they would be back to their usual snogging and touching in places other people never touched them. Neither man ever spoke of the emotions that were growing because neither of them felt the need.

A few weeks after these secret meetings started, Jack was out on the water with Esmeralda, taking her on a tour of the cove when they spotted a Bermuda-rigged sloop with a bronze bow chaser. Just like the one that had attacked Barbossa’s _Cobra_. Jack was shaken and as he pulled closer to the ship, he was astonished to discover that it belonged to none other than his friend Borya, Pirate Lord of the Caspian Sea.

Jack rowed back to shore and he and Esmeralda went off in search of the Keeper of the Code. In finding Captain Teague, they also found Captain Barbossa. Jack wanted nothing more than to flit over to Barbossa’s side, lay his hand on the older man’s chest and let him know he’d found the miscreant responsible for destroying his ship. Instead, he remained where he was.

Borya denied it, of course. And Teague, desiring to be a fair leader, decided that they would call on Davy Jones. Jones was able to confirm Borya’s guilt, which changed Borya’s tune completely. The Russian man sang like a bird, spilling his accomplices’ names all over the deck of the _Troubadour_. One of the names surprised Jack. It was his friend Christophe, a man he trusted with his life. As much as Jack wanted to bask in the rewards he was sure Barbossa would give him that night, he chose to free his friend instead.

It was to be the last time Jack saw Barbossa for seven years.

Jack pulled his new ship, _The Black Pearl_ , into port in Tortuga. He was here to procure a crew. Hopefully he’d be able to find a good first mate here too. Otherwise he’d have to go to Shipwreck Cove and he didn’t want to do that until he was on the account once more.

He sauntered into town, greeting all the lovely concubines as he headed towards a pub. In the pub, he grabbed a tankard of rum from the barkeep and stood with his back to a wall, watching the crowd that came and went. One person in particular caught his eye. He looked older, more ragged, but with a concubine on each arm, his identity was easy to make out. Barbossa.

Jack made his way to that corner of the room, not drawing attention to him in the dark room. Finally, he was right behind Barbossa’s chair.

“Always wit’ your doxies mate?”

Barbossa looked behind him and stood up. “Well, if it isn’t Jack Sparrow! Where ye been, boyo?”

Jack shrugged, not wanting to answer. “Barbossa, are you ‘ere on your own ship or are you in the market?”

“I’m in the market, as it were. Why, Jack? ‘Ave ye a ship?”

“Matter o’ fact I do. An’ I find myself in need o’ a first mate. Someone I can trust. I trust you are that man?”

Barbossa smiled and shook Jack’s hand warmly. “Always, Cap’n.”

Jack smiled and left the pub, trusting that Barbossa would soon follow. On his way back to the docks, he stopped and purchased a bushel of apples, remembering his new first mate’s fondness of the fruit. It would do him good to have some aboard his ship. Just as Jack reached the _Pearl_ , Barbossa started descending the docks.

He had aged considerably. He had a limp now that he’d lacked before. But he still looked the same. His hair was now streaked with red instead of being streaked with grey, but that was still the face that Jack had been thinking of for the past seven years.

Jack continued the climb up the gangplank, knowing that Barbossa would follow him. He entered his cabin with its marvelous turquoise walls and sat down, tossing the apples onto the table. He picked one up and just held it in his hand, waiting for Barbossa to open the door.

Barbossa opened the door, a smirk on his face. The smirk disappeared as he watched Jack seductively bite into the apple.

“Ye’ve been gone a long time, Jackie boy. Where is it ye’ve been hiding?”

“Oh, ‘ere an’ there. About.” Jack smiled and stood up from the table. “Miss me?”

Barbossa was standing so close that the two men could feel their breath intertwine. He smiled at Jack and said a quiet “aye lad” before kissing the younger man.

To Jack, it was like they’d never been separated. He forgot his intentions of seducing Barbossa back into his life, knowing now that they weren’t needed. Instead he gripped the older man’s shoulders, dragging the coat off of them. Barbossa shoved Jack down on to the table, ripping his coat off as well. Jack pulled Barbossa down on top of him, never breaking their violent kiss. His hips rose up, no longer under his control. He’d lost his senses the moment Barbossa’s lips touched his.

Somehow, they unclothed each other, knocking all the apples off the table or smashing them in the process. Both of them were covered in the sticky juice from apples that had been smashed beneath their writhing bodies. Jack nipped at the juicy spots on Barbossa’s shoulders, unable to resist the taste of salty skin mixed with apples. Barbossa, in turn, sank his teeth into the side of Jack’s neck, bringing an impatient hiss from the younger man.

They continued to torture each other until neither one of them could take much more. After they found their release, they collapsed on the wooden table, Jack’s head resting on Barbossa’s chest and Barbossa’s arm holding Jack close.

Jack didn’t imagine life would always be like this, after all, neither of them wanted to be tied down by feelings. But he planned on enjoying the time he and Barbossa spent together, no matter how long it lasted. For, although he would never admit it to anyone, not even himself, he had fallen in love with the older pirate and the time they spent together was nothing but pleasurable to him.

Jack and Hector continued their relationship for three years. Jack was captain and Hector was his loyal first mate. But Jack was growing tired of pirating. Even with the prospect of Cortes’s gold, he knew that he would soon retire.

He breached the subject one night as Barbossa leaned against his chest, cutting an apple.

“I been thinking, ‘Ector. An’ this will be my last trip as Captain. After this, I’m retiring. Maybe to a private island somewhere. With rum,” he took a sip of his rum bottle and looked down at the grey head on his chest.

“Retire? Whyever would ye want to do that, Jack? The sea be yer life. Wot would ye do wit’out the adventure?”

Barbossa was dying to scream at Jack not to leave him, not to abandon what they had in order to retire. But he wouldn’t do that. The two of them had never spoken of feelings of love, preferring to keep their lives simple. But nonetheless, Jack was the reason Barbossa was still a pirate. But if Jack left him… Barbossa couldn’t even ponder over the possibility. If Jack left the pirating business, it would be on Barbossa’s terms.

A few weeks later, he convinced Jack to share the coordinates of Isla de la Muerta with him. Jack, trusting his lover, did so. That night, he was left alone on a deserted island. As Barbossa sailed away as captain of the _Pearl,_ he smiled. Now Jack couldn’t break his heart.

Hector and the crew soon learned of the curse they had fallen prey to by stealing Cortes’s gold. Nothing ever fulfilled them. And when Bootstrap sent a piece of the gold away, Barbossa wanted to weep. He couldn’t feel anything, not cold, not hot, not pain. He no longer felt the stirrings of passion he had felt before when he thought of Jack.

It made him bitter. For 10 years he led the crew of the _Pearl,_ dying to feel something from one of their victims. But no one made him feel anything. And he never heard rumors of Jack. That was the worst part. Not knowing where Jack was made Hector try even harder to feel emotion. He would lay awake in the captain’s cabin-Jack’s cabin. And instead of crying, he would remember. He remembered all the time they’d spent together. He must have written ten letters a week, only to burn them. But he knew that by marooning Jack on that island, he’d destroyed their relationship. Even though he’d done it to avoid heartbreak, Jack would never forgive him. The love that Hector Barbossa had treasured for the past three years was lost to him forever.

Jack had spent ten years wallowing in his rum, trying his best not to be bitter about Barbossa abandoning him. But it didn’t work. He suffered from heartbreak, heartbreak that was made worse by every mention of the _Black Pearl_ that he heard. He stayed around Shipwreck Cove for a while, but Teague continued to bring him down. So he left, wandering around Tortuga and other ports. He visited Singapore, but found that it wasn’t to his liking. Finally, he ended up in Port Royal.

Of course, Port Royal turned out to be a bad idea. As Jack sat in the jail, he reminisced over better times. Times when he would stand on the deck of the _Pearl_ with Barbossa, shooting the guns at an enemy ship. He could almost… wait, he could hear the guns! The _Pearl_! She was attacking Port Royal!

Jack scrambled to the window and watched as the _Pearl_ attacked the town. And then, almost as though Barbossa knew he was here, one of the cannonballs hit the jail. Unfortunately, it hit the wrong side of the window. Once again Jack had to watch as Barbossa sailed away with his ship.

He sighed unhappily, picking at his clothing. It wasn’t the loss of the _Pearl_ he minded so much as the loss of Barbossa yet again. He’d tried for ten years to stop caring about the older pirate, but nothing worked. No matter how much he struggled or drank, nothing worked.

But finding out that the curse on the gold was true made his life a little better. Barbossa was suffering too, even if he wasn’t suffering the loss of Jack. As petty as it sounded, it made Jack smile. It was one of the reasons Jack decided to help young William Turner, that and knowing that the Turner boy was the only chance that Jack had to save Barbossa.

Even if their romance had ended, Jack would save Barbossa from his curse.

When the time came, rather than the reunion Jack had so desired, he found himself fighting Barbossa for his life. Even knowing that he too had stolen a piece of Cortes’s gold, thus becoming undead, he didn’t want to fight his former lover. But Barbossa wouldn’t stop. And he implied that Jack was weak. It tore Jack’s heart up. But at the last moment, he shot Hector Barbossa; killing the only man he’d ever loved.

Watching Hector die, Jack wanted to take the older man into his arms and pour out his heart. Instead, he just stood there, refusing to feel anything.

Being captured by Commodore Norrington was almost a blessing to Jack. It meant that he would be hung. It meant that he would be with Barbossa in the afterlife. But Turner had to go and ruin it all, saving Jack’s life just as he dropped. As much as he appreciated the thought, he wanted to be with Barbossa. Of course, he wouldn’t say that out loud. Instead he acted like he wanted to live, taking command of the _Pearl_ again. But his heart was dead.

Jack wasn’t sure how he continued to live. He’d shot the man he loved. For a while, running away from Norrington occupied his mind both day and night. But then they’d lost Norrington in that hurricane. After that, he had too much free time on his hands. Too much time to remember Hector.

Hector… The man hadn’t deserved death. Even if he had betrayed Jack, he didn’t deserve to die. They hadn’t even talked about what happened between them. Jack couldn’t handle it.

And then Bootstrap visited him. The black spot scared Jack. He didn’t want to die like that! He wanted to live until he could find a way to bring Hector back! He’d written about it in all of his journals, journals no one would ever find. He couldn’t let Davy Jones win. So he planned to fight. He planned to go see Tia Dalma.

Will showed up, messing up the plan. He was blabbering on about how Elizabeth had been put in jail. Jack desperately wanted to ask why that should matter to him when the man he loved had been sent to the Locker. But of course he would help Will and Elizabeth. They’d helped him. It was only fair he return the favor, on his terms.

Tia Dalma knew. All it took was one look in her eyes, and Jack knew his secret about Hector wasn’t such a secret. Oh well. It wasn’t like loving the man could bring him back from the dead. Only magic could do that. And Jack was too concerned with being kept away from Davy Jones to bother asking Tia Dalma for more magic. His beloved Hector could wait until after he’d secured his own life.

Perhaps offering Will to serve on the _Dutchman_ wasn’t the wisest decision, but Jack could hardly concentrate on anything anymore. And it seemed like a good idea at the time. So did going to Tortuga to try and procure 99 more souls. He knew that he wouldn’t succeed, but he had to try.

Running in to Norrington wasn’t very pleasant. Allowing the man on his ship was even worse. But it was best to keep his enemies close to him, so he allowed the pathetic man to come along for the ride.

Elizabeth was a darling. Jack was bored with the days of repetitive movements, so he chose to attempt to seduce the lass. Of course, he wasn’t really interested in her, but he could act like it. She was so fun to annoy with his comments and attempts at seducing her. More to the point, she helped him forget about the pain he felt without Barbossa. He’d been without Barbossa for most of his life. Why should the few years that they’d spent together matter to him anyhow?

When they found the chest containing Jones’s heart, Jack felt like things were finally looking up for him. Of course, Will had to show up and ruin things once more. He really didn’t need a swordfight with the young man and the former commodore, especially when he knew that the _Dutchman_ was not far behind Will. But he had no other choice.

Finally, getting away with the heart, he’d begun to hope. Perhaps he could blackmail Jones into saving Barbossa. It might work, even if Barbossa hadn’t died at sea. So he stuffed the heart in his jar of dirt, intending to use it as leverage.

Of course fate had other plans. As fate would have it, he’d lost the heart. Jack almost gave up right then. But he couldn’t. He was Captain Jack Sparrow. He never gave up. No matter what. So he fought. And when it became clear that the Kraken had been awakened, he knew he had lost. Of course, he could still try. But he couldn’t leave Will and Elizabeth to suffer a fate worse than death. So he went back.

He knew Elizabeth wouldn’t let him off the ship the moment she saw him. He was resigned to dying, looking forward to it, even. He just wanted to be with Barbossa again. So he let Elizabeth kiss him, the kiss of death. And even though she probably thought his last word was meant for her, it wasn’t. By saying she was a pirate, he was saying she was almost as good as Barbossa, the only person who mattered.

He wasn’t afraid of the Kraken. The beastie couldn’t do anything more to hurt him than he’d done to himself. So he welcomed the attack. Perhaps he was even excited. All he knew is that once the Kraken had eaten him; he wouldn’t have to feel anymore. So he jumped.

Hector Barbossa was a conflicted man. Tia Dalma had brought him back from the dead, an action he did appreciate. But to come back and find out that Jack Sparrow had been eaten by the Kraken almost killed him again. Jack Sparrow, the one man that Hector could never blame for mutinous actions, was stuck in the Locker. Of course Hector would have to fix that.

In order to save Jack, he knew that he would have to have the charts that mapped the way past the end of the world. And Sao Feng, Pirate Lord of the South China Sea, held those charts.

Hector trusted Will Turner to retrieve the charts from the temple of Sao Feng’s uncle while he and Elizabeth set forth on the more dangerous leg of the mission, procuring a ship from Sao Feng himself. The Pirate Lord was not a very kind man, as was the case with most pirates, and he held a particularly strong grudge against Jack Sparrow. Hector wasn’t sure what Jack had done to make Sao Feng hate him, but he knew that if Sao Feng knew who they were rescuing from the Locker, he would never agree to it. That being the case, he was bound to find out.

Of course, Hector hadn’t expected young Turner to be the one to spill the beans. What could he really expect from the boy? He was soft, like his father before him. It was one of the reasons his father now crewed the damned ship of Davy Jones instead of living with his only son. But hearing the words spill from Will Turner’s mouth made Hector want to shoot the idjit.

Barbossa flicked his silver piece of eight, not the actual piece of eight mind you, to Sao Feng, knowing that the song would be the only reason the man needed to save Jack Sparrow. Sure enough, Sao Feng agreed to give them a ship and a crew, as well as his maps. Of course, it didn’t come without some drama.

Barbossa really wasn’t in the mood to fight the EITC, but he did so anyhow. A determined man could do anything, in his thoughts, and Hector Barbossa was one hell of a determined man. Running through the streets with his crew, he reveled in the ability to breathe again, temporarily glad that Tia Dalma had brought him back, even though he knew her reasoning behind it. The soreness of his muscles told him that he was truly alive, a feeling he hadn’t felt since abandoning Jack on that island, all those years ago. But finally, he was alive and soon Jack would be too.

The trip from the South China Sea to the end of the world was a long one, two weeks of waters getting colder and colder. But Barbossa would not turn back. He would not abandon Jack in his time of need. He would not accept the fate that Davy Jones had forced upon his young pirate. Jack wasn’t ready to die, not when there was so much life in him.

Finally, his thoughts full of grief that his relationship with the young Sparrow hadn’t gone differently, Barbossa was there, at World’s end. The hope that filled his heart was overwhelming. Perhaps after the Brethren Court met, they would finally be at peace and he could finally have Jack. After they freed Calypso from her human body though, as was his agreement with Tia Dalma.

When they reached the Locker, Barbossa didn’t know what he had expected. Part of him expected to see Jack waiting for him, jumping up with glee when he showed up to save him. But of course, Jack didn’t show emotion like that. Not seeing Jack at all was the last thing he expected. As he scanned the horizon, his heart nearly burst when that familiar ship came over a hill. Jack.

Had Jack gone mad? The moment he stepped off the _Pearl_ he started rambling about discipline on the vessel. Didn’t he know where he was? It was fine time for Hector to remind him of such.

“Jack Sparrow.” Ah but that name sounded good on his lips. And the smile that Jack rewarded him with was enough to sink an enemy ship.

“Ah, ‘Ector! Its been too long, ‘asn’t it.”

“Aye, Isle de la Muerta, remember? You shot me.”

“No I didn’t.”

Yes, there was something wrong with Jack. But as he sidled off to greet other people, Hector knew he would let it pass, for now. Finally, the realization that Jack wasn’t in his right mind dawned on them all, in the words of young William, of course. _Ah Jack, me boy. You can’t even tell what’s real and what’s not anymore._ Hector frowned, not sure how to snap Jack out of it. Whatever he was expecting, it wasn’t for Elizabeth to be the one to waken Jack’s mind to reality. Or for Jack to be cocky, once again, and refuse to help them. He couldn’t help it; he wanted to rile the boy up.

“I see my ship, right there.” He gestured to the _Pearl._

“Can’t spot it. Must be a tiny little thing ‘iding behind the _Pearl.”_ Yes, that was the Jack Barbossa knew. Content that the man was back, he smirked. They would be having words about who was proper captain of the _Pearl_ in due time.

As everyone else crowded around Jack to convince him of their need of him, Barbossa too drew close, unable to resist. This was his Jack, after all. Seeing that Jack hadn’t quite been sold on the idea of the world needing him, Barbossa spoke up once more.

“Aye Jack, the world needs you back somethin’ fierce.” His voice was laced with desperation and longing, enough to get Jack to stop, but not enough for anyone else to pick up on it. It wouldn’t due to have the crew thinking that Jack had made him into a tart.

“Why should I sail wit’ any o’ you? Four o’ you ‘ave tried to kill me in the past, one o’ you succeeded.” Barbossa watched as young William turned to Elizabeth, shock written all over his face. _So the young lad didn’t know his fair maiden was a murderous pirate. No matter, Jack’s the one we need to convince._

Jack sauntered over to the crew, assessing whom he was willing to sail with. As he approached Tia Dalma, a spike of jealousy ran through Hector. What exactly had the woman done to his lad? Shaking it off, he figured that Jack would tell him once they were alone again. And they would be alone very soon. They had quite a few matters to discuss, and he wasn’t letting Jack out of his sight until they’d been discussed… thoroughly and several times.


End file.
